BETWEEN THE POSSIBLE AND THE REAL
4 British Abstract Painters
Jon Thompson, Ben Ravenscroft, Andrew Graves, Andrew Bick
acrylic paint, Perspex and wall mounted projector with clamp
Perspex box is 30cms x 30cms
impasto paint, canvas, wall mounted projector with clamp
Canvas is 30cms x 30cms
wall mounted unit, projector, corrugated plastic, moving image and paint
60cms x 45cms x 32
‘Lobster’, ‘Un-Still Life’ and ‘Smokin’ are strikingly classical in their detachment and restraint. Large sections of canvas are painted in flat, black acrylic, in accord with those corresponding sections of the film, which throw forward negligible light. This combined effort establishes a rich void-like environment, a climate within which light-ridden naked subjects are locked into their poses, making minimal and only necessary movement (such as breathing and blinking). All of these pieces allow selective reflection for the viewer on works such as Manet’s ‘Olympia’ (1863) and ‘Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber’ (1602) by Juan Sanchez Cotan.
In the ongoing series of smaller pieces like ‘Where the Sun is Silent’ and ‘Lime Light’, the projectors are positioned on clamps, hovering just above and in front of the small canvases, integrated with the work and very much in the viewer’s perception. This decision, at once over-rides filmic convention and reinforces the use of light (from the projector) as an important formal element; a material, a substance equal to paint. Similarly, the ‘vehicle’ for the work is not a given – in these pieces Branagan paints and projects on canvas and Perspex. It is these kinds of novel accounting for materials without recourse to established precepts that leads to radical results in Branagan’s work.
In ‘Where the Sun is Silent’, there is no single dominant figure as in pieces like ‘Un-Still Life’. Instead we become aware of a sort of supra-image, whose sub-images twitch and flex within the space they require and which is duly constructed for them by a thick and loosely applied network of white paint on top of the original black ground. In practical terms this painted network provides a ground for the image, permitting it to be seen, however it also applies the rule by which each little sub-image can ‘perform’ inside its specified space. The projected sub-images are thus tightly stitched into and across the canvas. Their shifts and oscillations are reconstituted on the surface in a reciprocal flow; drawing and re-drawing on perpetual replay.
Another piece in this series called ‘Peep Show’ contrasts with the above, in that each small dab of white paint on the surface of the perspex occupies its own space by right, rather than by negotiation with the requirements of the projected image. Consequently each little sub-image or figure is only partially received, leaving a smattering of incomplete body parts across the picture plane.
The image is again ‘hosted’ by the white paint/ground, but what is not wanted is allowed to fall backwards, through and between the dabs of paint, carrying as it goes the complimentary shadow of each mini plane. The micro-movements of each figure, which are now fractured and occupy separate physical planes, are perceived chorally and their accumulated movements cascade one into another evoking a chaotic orgiastic musicality.
A more extensive analysis of Sean Branagan’s work will be presented at a Symposium in London next year. Please ask the gallery at a later date when more details will be available.
Born in Old Trafford, Salford, England, Branagan studied at BIAD (Birmingham City University). He has received the Salford City Arts Bursary 1st prize, a Pollock Krasner Foundation award, New York and an ‘Art for Architecture’ Award from the Royal Society of Arts. Solo shows include: ‘Painting with People’, THE PROJECTspace, Vyner Street London; ‘LIGHT FORMS’, VINEspace London; ‘Painting with People II’, STUDIO ONE, the GRV, Edinburgh and The Solo Project Basel. Group shows include: ‘Shibboleth’, The Cafe Gallery Projects London; ‘Neighbourhood Watch’, Nettie Horn, London; ‘Visions in the Nunnery’, Bow Arts London and ‘Painting Unlimited’, APT, London.
In 2009 Branagan exhibited in the Palazzo delle Esposizioni Rome, as part of ROMA, the Road to Contemporary Art and at The Solo Project Basel, Switzerland. Next Spring he has a solo show at GOODEN Gallery, London. He lives and works in London